AboutNewsA Message from our Board of Directors Chair for the Girl S...

A Message from our Board of Directors Chair for the Girl Scouts Heart of
the South Annual Meeting

05 Jun 2018

I’m Mary Kay Wegner, Chair of the Board of Directors, I am sorry that
I’m unable to be there with you today as I am traveling for business.

I can only image what the energy is like in the room with all of you
there. I hope today will be a day of learning, fun and you will leave
with a feeling of how sweet it is to be a Girl Scout.

Today I want to talk about what’s ahead of us, our amazing
opportunities that no other youth-serving organization has and finally
wrap things up with where we are.

You can’t start any talk about Girl Scouts without going back to our
founder, Juliette Gordon Low.

As I was thinking about today’s remarks, I really thought about this
quote from her “The work of today is the history of tomorrow and we
are its makers.” Think about the context of when she said that over
100 years ago.

The world was changing – it was moving from an agrarian society to
an industrial society. Totally different ways of life. Everything was
being changed. There was so much economic displacement. But she saw opportunity.

When the rest of the world wondered what was next – she knew. And
she saw that an entirely different way of living was right before us.

She saw that opportunity and she wanted to make sure that, unlike
history before, girls and women were going to be part of creating that history.

So, she seized that opportunity and, as society was changing, she
made sure Girl Scouts was right there.

If you think about it, some of our first Girl Scout badges were the
outdoors, but what were they also? They were STEM. We didn’t have the
phrase back then, but think about it – carpentry, electrician – they
were things that really made you interested and curious about that
world that was being created right at that moment. The S in STEM is
Science, which is nature and the great outdoors.

When she formed Girl Scouts, she realized that these weren’t badges
that would be set in stone. These would be badges that would be
constantly changing. They were about constantly learning. So, she
created an organization that is constantly learning and taught our
girls to be lifelong learners.

Look at our results for our alumnae. We really were a force in the
20th century. Half of all female elected officials, all but
one of the elected female governors, 75% of the US female senators,
all three female Secretaries of State and almost every female
astronaut that has gone to space were Girl Scouts.

Right now, we are living in a moment where again everything is
changing from an industrial economy to an information economy. For a
lot of people that can be scary.

Look at the horse and buggy at the time when cars first came out.
People saw a car and thought “Well, I guess it replaces a tractor. I
guess it will take me to town.” Never fully understanding what it
meant. How it changed the way families lived and worked.

It even changed the way we vacationed, it changed the entire
business. It changed so much of the way we live, work and play.

Back then, who could have imagined where we are today. A time when
cars sometimes are driving themselves. That would have been almost incomprehensible.

And right now, we are at that moment when the new fuel of he economy
is data. So how are we going to make this? Well, what is in everyone’s
pocket? (Take out cell phone.) This is how the new opportunities are
being created.

At this initial stage, a lot of things seem almost scary. And right
now, we’re at a point where, in the next few years, EVERYTHING is
going to be redesigned.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Alexa, a device that
helps with search engine operation. A piece of technology that is
always on and always listening. Health monitor app on your phone and
even the ear buds that you use with your phone.

Think about it. It knows when you are not home. It knows when your
kids are home alone. It knows when you are home alone. It makes
finding information, songs and so much more available at the sound of
your voice. What a piece of technology this has become, and the future
it beacons for us.

Just like when Juliette started Girl Scouts, the world was about to
be redesigned. We are now living in an era – over the next four to
five years – when everything is being redesigned.

All across America, Mayors, community leaders, business leaders,
CEOs - this is the question they’re asking. Who’s going to build that
world? Who is going to be the workforce of tomorrow? Who is going to
code? Who is going to do robotics? Who is going to compile the data,
so it is secure and safe?

What I like to say is, Girl Scouts has a badge for that! If you
think about a sensor that is in everything from our refrigerators to
our phones to our cars – everything we touch – what are those sensors? Robotics.

We’ve got Robotics badges for girls who are as young as Daisy’s all
the way to High School Ambassadors.

Think about it in terms of the weather. We are all confounded by the
quick weather changes. All Over the Country. Look at what Girl Scouts
has been through during this past membership season. It was one
extreme weather wave after another.

This caused many Girl Scouts to ask “What are we doing about this?
How can I begin to understand what’s happening?” Well guess what –
Girl Scouts has a badge for that!

Enabling girls to answer these questions is one reason I’m excited
about all the new STEM badges and the new Imagine Center at Girl
Scouts Heart of the South. This center will help our girls think
analytically, to think outside of the box. STEM will show our girls
how to discover the joy and wonder of the world.

Just like the time of Juliette Gordon Low, the world is about to be
recreated. And what are we doing? We are preparing our girls to be
fearless. We are preparing our girls to be the creators of this future.

They are going to be designers of the future. When I think about
what we are doing in Girl Scouts, what we are offering to communities
throughout the Mid-South, I get so excited. I am thrilled when people
come up to me and say, “This is what I want for my daughter. This is
what I want for my family.”

I’m excited about where we are in Girl Scouts. Because what we are
doing is preparing the next generation of girls who will create our
mutual future.

I’m sure you are asking “Where are we?” Of course, you all know the
3Ms – membership, money and Movement. So let’s talk about membership
and living our mission.

Nationwide, Girl Scouts membership numbers are declining. Luckily
that is no longer happening here at Heart of the South.

Our outcomes are amazing. The longer a girl is a Girl Scout, the
better her life trajectory is.

I think about how it changes girls’ lives and changes their
communities. So, over the course of the Volunteer Leadership Summit, I
want you all to really be working on this issue. What bottlenecks can
we get out of the way? How do we get that sense of urgency, that
within 24 hours of someone expressing an interest, they are on the
Girl Scout roll?

Right now, we have a competitor who is actively going after our
girls. They aren’t looking to add other girls who aren’t Girl Scouts.
They are coming after our girls.

And sometimes that’s hard for us, because it’s a partner that we’ve
worked well with over the years. But lately things have been changing.

What we know is they’re after our girls, they’re after our
membership, and they’re after our money.

We cannot underestimate this in any shape or form. Please realize
that they’ve got a plan to go after Girl Scouts. It may feel for you
that it’s episodic. Like “Oh I have a volunteer who said she’s going
to register as a Girl Scout and as a Boy Scout as well, and do the
cookie program, get the cookie cash and use it for Boy Scouts.”

The answer to that is NO. It is NO.

This is by no means just local or personal. It is being experienced
across the country from California to Florida, from Vermont to Hawaii.

I have this image in mind. We have 114 doors in our Movement. We
have 112 councils, USA Girl Scouts Overseas, and Girl Scouts of the
USA. At any moment they can try to come in. And we must stand tall,
stand together, because they are going to come knocking on every door.

Large councils, small councils, come to corporate, overseas. And
what we must stand firm on is that there’s only one Girl Scout
experience. We have an amazing brand and they want that glow and they
want our girls and they want our organization.

What do I say to that? No. Not at all.

I know some of you are going to come to me and say, “But we’ve
always done things this way, let’s not upset tradition.” What I say to
that is that when people show you who they are, believe them.

We must take uncomfortable actions to protect our movement and our
girls. So, we have to take that stand in our communities. But to me
what’s exciting is where it all comes together and how many assets we
have. Our future is bright. Look what we’ve done.

We’ve got the #2 brand in the world. That’s one of the reasons they
want to cozy up and take pictures with you. Because they want some of
our shine on them.

Our interests align with community and business leaders interest to
invest in our properties, to modernize them, to prepare them for girls
to have the experiences to develop their potential to thrive in the
21st century.

That is super exciting.

Our iconic cookie program, that is something we must really protect.
We must make sure that only Girl Scouts in Girl Scout uniforms are
selling our cookies. We must be very careful on that.

We have our amazing volunteers, our program, our digital reach, and
our alumnae. We have so much. Think about where we are.

We now have a program with LinkedIn where our alums from across the
world are going to be able to put “Proud Girl Scout” on their profile.
We are going to be able to link our millions of alumnae, and thanks to
a partnership with Salesforce, we will be able to get their data and
download it. Councils around the country will be able to say “I see
one of our Girl Scouts is working for this big corporation. I’m going
to give her a call and remind her of her Girl Scout roots.”

So now putting this all together, think about this. Our businesses,
what kind of employees do they want? They want employees who are
continuous learners. Employees who are constantly learning how to
re-learn, how to keep their skills sharp. Doesn’t that sound a lot
like what we do at Girl Scouts? They’re looking for Girl Scouts.

Your mayors, your community leaders, your superintendents, what are
they looking for? The workforce of the future. They’re looking for
that pipeline. They’re looking for the leaders that are creating that
pipeline, the ones who are developing that. That is what they really
want now.

I want everyone to stand up. Look around the room at the great
opportunity that we have, and I want you to think not about what
stands in front of you but who stands right here beside you.

I’m so excited about our opportunity at Girl Scouts. Please join
with me and let’s work to make the future for our girls the brightest
it’s ever been.

I’ve had parents come to me and say, “You know what gives my
daughter hope, and me as her parent hope? It’s the leadership skills
she’s learning at Girl Scouts and the hand-on skills she is learning.”

That is what we offer communities, that is what we offer our girls,
we offer them that leg up on life. So, I want to thank you, let’s put
our shoulders to the wheel, we can do this.